The record looks bad, but even after a 49-21 loss to Oklahoma dropped UCLA to its first 0-2 start since 2010, there could still be reason for optimism.

The Bruins had a true freshman starting at quarterback in his first road game ever, an offensive line that sometimes resembled a sieve, and a top-10 opponent with one of the most explosive offenses in the country. Then they scored first and kept it a 14-point game at halftime. Not too bad for 30-point underdogs.

UCLA came away happy with its improvement from its season-opening loss, but has to start turning the improvement into results next week against Fresno State to avoid its first 0-3 start since 1971.

A more in-depth review of the game

GOODS

Dorian Thompson-Robinson

The freshman proved his mettle in one of the most difficult environments the Bruins will face this year.

He airmailed his first pass, but that was the only clear sign of nerves all day. He confidently stepped up in the pocket when it collapsed around him. He notched his first collegiate touchdown pass. He threw some sensational passes, including a 45-yard dime to Theo Howard near the sideline in the fourth quarter and a throw to Chase Cota when Thompson-Robinson threw from the left hash all the way to the numbers on the right side. Playing behind a struggling offensive line, Thompson-Robinson also showed how valuable his scrambling ability is as he extended plays and slipped away from would-be tacklers.

The 18-year-old missed a few throws and showed his youth by trying to hold onto the ball for too long on a second-down sack in the first quarter, but he said he felt much more comfortable this week than during the previous week. His body language after the game reflected that feeling as he met with the media looking at ease.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens if/when Wilton Speight is cleared to return. Kelly said he was “really impressed” with Thompson-Robinson, which, in the head coach’s vernacular, is probably some of the highest praise he’ll give. Tight end Caleb Wilson and offensive lineman Michael Alves both praised Thompson-Robinson, with Alves saying, “He’s shown that he can be a starting quarterback for us.”

Darnay Holmes

Yes, I think Holmes should have been called for pass interference on that first play. But when asked of how he thought the defense performed, Kelly highlighted only one player by name and that was Holmes. The sophomore had three tackles, an interception, a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry when he came down on a corner blitz.

It appeared that Holmes was matched up with Marquise Brown often. The star receiver came up with big plays, like his 58-yard touchdown, but did so mostly when Holmes was not covering him directly. Brown scored the touchdown from the slot while Holmes was lined up out wide. The Bruins also missed several tackles on that play. (That’s a conversation that seems to never stop with UCLA.) Brown also had two catches on one drive in the second quarter while Holmes was not on the field.

Holmes struggled with tackling technique last year, getting ejected for targeting twice, so we’ll need more time to see if he’s cleaned up that part of his game. But his skills in coverage seem as strong as ever and he’s well on his way to becoming a shutdown corner every team wants.

Caleb Wilson

Every true freshman quarterback probably wishes they had a tight end like Caleb Wilson. The redshirt junior returned to his reliable self against Oklahoma with a team-high 92 yards on four catches. Of UCLA’s 125 receiving yards in the first three quarters (before both teams started emptying their benches) Wilson had 92 of them.

Thompson-Robinson had to work hard to establish a connection with the receivers since joining the team in June and it’s clear that Wilson has emerged as an early safety blanket. I would think that Wilson’s friendly personality makes it easy for any quarterback to find comfort with him. Outside of just being one of Josh Rosen’s favorite targets, Wilson was also one of the former UCLA quarterback’s favorite teammates in general. Having the tight end back and healthy is not only a positive thing for the Bruins on the field, but he is someone that many teammates gravitate toward.

BADS

Special teams

We spent all training camp watching the same special teams drills every day for a month. Then UCLA allows kick returns of 86 and 35 yards and a 66-yard punt return. On the TV broadcast, FOX analyst Joel Klatt pointed out how Jay Shaw literally jumped out of his lane, seemingly on his own accord, on the 86-yard kickoff return that led to Oklahoma’s first touchdown. It was an especially bad break because the Bruins had just scored and grabbed some unexpected momentum. The return lane was open straight up the middle again on the 35-yarder in the fourth quarter.

Kelly’s Oregon teams were generally very good on special teams and UCLA was expecting to be much better this season after focusing on them so often during training camp. Obviously when a team is as overmatched as the Bruins were against Oklahoma, it can’t afford breakdowns in special teams that swing momentum and drastically flip field position.

Penalties

Penalties were an issue against Cincinnati and they continued to plague the Bruins against Oklahoma, but in a different way. The season opener was about procedural penalties: four false starts and 12 men on the field. There was also one false start against Cincinnati. They were all 5-yarders.

This time, it was the bigger penalties: three pass interference calls, an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and late hit out of bounds. There could have been one more pass interference on Holmes as well. Those are all worth 15 yards.

UCLA also had one false start against Cincinnati that occurred on third-and-6, wiping out a would-be incompletion and giving the Sooners a third-and-1 that they then converted.

Kelly said he was proud of how the defense competed, but the penalties were the big glaring error he wanted to address. He said they will have to work on their coverage technique more to avoid the pass interference calls in the future.

First-down offense leading to third-and-long

Part of what made Thomson-Robinson so susceptible to sacks was UCLA’s inability to get yardage on first down, thus knocking the offense off track early and resulting in third-and-long. The Oklahoma defense wasn’t shy in dialing up the blitz.

Of the 11 third downs the Bruins faced in the first three quarters, 10 were longer than 7 yards. That’s because UCLA averaged just 1.8 yards on first down through three quarters.

The Bruins got loose in the fourth with big first-down plays of 45, 13 and 22 yards, which saved the final first-down numbers as UCLA finished with 4.9 yards per first-down play.

Additional bad: Offensive line struggles

New year, same story.

The offensive line continues to struggle with protection, giving up six sacks. It was the most sacks allowed by UCLA in a game since Oct. 4, 2014 when the Bruins gave up 10 to Utah.

While Christaphany Murray didn’t have many, if any, questionable snaps this week, it still seems that the middle of the offensive line is the weakest part of the line. There was a lot of pressure that came up the middle, which made it difficult for Thompson-Robinson to step up and away from pressure in the pocket.

Alves said the offensive line has to be better at diagnosing defensive fronts to then be able to block appropriately. The Oklahoma defense brought blitzers from various positions with linebackers and corners crashing the backfield, sometimes using twists and stunts that seemed to baffle the new-look line.

“We’re a young line, but that’s no excuse for not playing well,” Alves said.

PERSONNEL NOTES

Jaelan Phillips seemed to suffer an injury very late in the first quarter. He was on the field for the last play of the first quarter, but I don’t know if I noticed him after that. Kelly said after the game that he didn’t know the injury or the extent of it, only that he knew Phillips was out. It did not look like the outside linebacker was involved on the final play of the first quarter. He made a tackle on the previous Oklahoma drive and appeared to be fine, despite the ball-carrier rolling over Phillips’ body during the tackle, but he seemed to make himself scarce after that. Odua Isibor got the first significant playing time of his career in Phillips’ place.

It seems that Alves rotating out of the offensive line in the third quarter is going to be a regular occurrence. He took a few drives off last week when Josh Wariboko-Alali came in and they did the same thing against Oklahoma at roughly the same time. Kelly said previously that he always tried to get his No. 2 quarterback some in-game reps early in the season, even if there was a clear No. 1 guy, to prepare the back-up in case the team had to turn to him full-time later. I think that’s the same idea behind rotating Alves and Wariboko-Alali as Wariboko-Alali is the team’s No. 6 offensive lineman.

Thuc Nhi Nguyen has covered UCLA for the Southern California News Group since 2016. A proud Seattle native, she majored in journalism and mathematics at the University of Washington. She likes graphs, animated GIFs and superheroes.